What’s YOUR “Strength of Sale?”

In a recent conversation with a sales executive at a global firm, he commented, “our biggest problem in sales is understanding, realistically, what the status of our sales opportunities actually are. The word realistically is hardly understated or anecdotal – annual research conducted by CSO Insights reveals that only about 50% of forecasted opportunities actually close and almost half of salespeople (46.2%) need improvement in qualifying opportunities.
  
Do you know What YOUR Strength of Sale is?In essence, sales organizations are not very good at objectively assessing the probabilities of winning sales opportunities. By default, they spend more that 50% of their precious selling time on opportunities that are lost to competition or to “no decision.” There’s also a subtle, deeper problem with this issue. What the research is really telling us is that sales organizations are not applying process and structure to selling on a consistent basis, so they have no real way to understand where sales “quality” problems exist, and how to address them. The situation is analogous to the old marketing joke, “We waste 50% of our budget on advertising - we’re just not sure what half.”
 
Part of the problem is that the traditional BANT (budget, authority, need, timeframe) model for assessing sales opportunities is often inadequate for qualification purposes. To that end, we’ve developed a free mobile learning module for smartphones called The Successful Sales Formula™.

The Successful Sales Formula™, a mobile learning module (Solution Selling mlearning) provides an introduction to a more structured approach to realistically qualify your sales opportunities. While this mobile lesson is a simplified version of what is taught in our formal training programs, it provides the starting point for something we call “Strength of Sale” - a  more objective framework for understanding the overall quality of an opportunity. In addition, following this model also encourages proven best practices for navigating and winning sales opportunities (or exiting opportunities that are a waste of time and effort). 

To access the free learning module, sales people can register on their smart phones at www.spisales.com/mobile under the Mobile Learning section. Following registration (or login if you are already registered), you can immediately begin the lesson, and return as often as needed to revisit key concepts. After taking the mobile learning course, you can apply the concepts using a simple “Strength of Sale™” application (Flash-based app usable on your PC or laptop). From your PC, click here to access >>>

This is just the beginning. In early 2012, we’ll be introducing innovative, easy-to-use software and tools that will allow almost any sales organization to learn and apply best practices for selling on a daily basis. In the interim, have fun with the free application - share and compare YOUR Strength of Sale™ with others in the sales community.